


Question

by gyromitra



Series: Reaper76Week stuff [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Word salad, character death - duh?, day 2: Role/Body Swapping, people turn into angrily hissing smoke, reaper76week, shitty french from someone who had a lick 10 years ago, widowmaker is a little shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:25:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9346505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyromitra/pseuds/gyromitra
Summary: “Reyes, I’m telling you, as your SIC, stay where you are and let it all blow over,” Jack sounds so irritatingly calm for someone who drugged him earlier and left him in some god-forsaken safehouse on the other side of the globe. “Serious shit is going down, the kind it’s better for Strike-Commander to be away for.”“You mean all this chatter on the news about Blackwatch storming Zurich?”orPeople don’t turn into angrily hissing smoke.





	

**Author's Note:**

> As someone pointed out, I don't have translations for Amelie, so added approximations at the end. Enjoy. Point out my shitty French. Translating from foreign language into foreign language HURTS.

“Reyes, I’m telling you, as your SIC, stay where you are and let it all blow over,” Jack sounds so irritatingly calm for someone who drugged him earlier and left him in some god-forsaken safehouse on the other side of the globe. “Serious shit is going down, the kind it’s better for Strike-Commander to be away for.”

“You mean all this chatter on the news about Blackwatch storming Zurich?”

“I’m trying to minimize the casualties. Whole building is compromised. There are demolition and concussion charges set throughout.”

“And you want me to believe that, Morrison?” Gabriel grinds out.

“You know that over the half of the committee you were scheduled with didn’t arrive? They didn’t even have charters, Reyes. They never intended to set foot in Zurich.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. This was an assassination attempt. I left you all data on our internal investigation. You’ve trusted me so far, even with the leak, trust me now. We’ve got almost everyone out, working on disabling the charges. Besides, you called me, not anyone else.”

“You could have told me, Morrison!”

“You wouldn’t have listened. Other thing, it’s not in the report, Gerard is al…”

Whatever the blonde is trying to tell him, it gets lost in electrical whine and then, static. Gabriel’s eyes flick to the holoscreen, where the building of Zurich Headquarters trembles and then collapses on itself. Shit. If there was an emp charge, Jack’s comm unit should have restarted by now, unless it got bricked. Seconds trickle by.

“…fuck… they activated them remotely…” There is a cough in the static, wet and unpleasant. “…’s maybe better for you… to stay dead… Gabe.”

“Where were you exactly in the building?” Gabriel asks through gritted teeth.

“…don’t bother… either gonna suffocate… or drown… won’t let me live anyways… no-one’s gonna get to basements…”

“Jack.”

“…considering… stay dead… with me,” there is a plea in the blonde’s voice. Gabriel closes his eyes. “…not long…”

“I’m here, Jack.”

“…thanks… not long…”

“I’m here.”

Sounds of labored breathing on the other side stop five minutes later.

*

“We have incoming reports that Strike-Commander Gabriel Reyes might have been caught in the blast that leveled down the Overwatch Zurich Headquarters. He was seen entering the building before the combatants, now identified as part of infamous Blackwatch, stormed it. There are eye-witness accounts of a dispute between Strike-Commander and his second in command, Commander Jack Morrison…”

Gabriel mutes the holoscreen and stares at it. How? He wasn’t even there, he isn’t even on the same continent – he is in fucking South America.

He shakes his head and skims the report Jack left him. It is a lot to take in, he needs a lot of time, and…

“I made a fail-safe, if everything goes fubar. You will probably get reported dead, sorry for those ‘personal effects’, I’ll get you a new coat if anything, so, again, in case it all goes to hell, you can lay low until it unfucks itself. The house is stocked with everything you might need, out of OW and BW notice. Here’s a list of those I have around.”

So that’s where a part of those disappearing funds he never managed to track went. In recent years he accused Jack of being paranoid. Now he knows it wasn’t without a reason.

“Now, I’ll probably get my ass killed, but you will have me to blame for everything, so OW’s going to be probably all right in the end. There’s a lot I didn’t manage to track, but that’s a good starting point. There are some definite hits on OW agents. Hope I managed to take out some of them. Most were under my nose, regardless. This shit goes deep. I’ll leave you to it. Love you. See you around. Jack.”

Fuck. Jack could have come to him. But Gabriel realizes that he had. Several times. He just wasn’t listening then and the blonde wasn’t pressing. When did he start to formulate a plan like this?

*

Two days are spent looking for a suitable body. He arms the self-destruct charges at the safehouse. It is better to stay dead.

*

Groundwork takes three years. By this time, he stops using Jack’s safehouses, more so when it becomes evident someone else is using them too – subtle traces of one’s presence, never too much, but nonetheless, it is there. He has his own set up now around the globe.

Gabriel briefly wonders who else could have the access to Jack’s list.

*

Rumors about a new mercenary tied to Talon resurface. The only things consistent in the reports are his ruthlessness, apparent vendetta against Overwatch personnel and dislike for getting recorded.

Word is out that this ‘ _Reaper_ ’ is a ghost moving through walls, sucking out people’s souls, and no-one is ever left alive in his wake.

Gabriel notices the Blackwatch symbol in one of the rare pictures taken.

*

Some of the agents taken out by Reaper are the same ones as the names in Jack’s report, Gabriel realizes.

It sets him on edge

*

The news start to call him ‘ _Soldier Death_ ’. Gabriel decides to keep the image.

*

The bounty on McCree goes up again, ten times up now. It shouldn’t be a surprise – Jack trained that kid personally. Fought for him.

If anyone’s going to have any pertinent information about the inner workings of Blackwatch Gabriel doesn’t know himself, it’s going to be Jesse. He only needs to find him before Reaper does.

*

Everything goes to shit when he tries to access the mainframe in one of the abandoned Blackwatch safehouses. Reaper is deathly silent in his approach and only pure luck saves him from getting his head shot off. The rifle seems familiar, Gabriel thinks.

There is so much anger behind that strange mask it’s palatable in the air. Gabriel manages a hit dead centre on the mercenary’s torso and the man scatters _literally_ into dark smoke that _hisses_ at him. It moves with a mind of its own, floats away.

He gets drunk that night. People _don’t_ turn into _angrily hissing smoke_.

*

He tracks down McCree two months later. Gabriel doesn’t approach, because Jesse is talking, of all the people, with Reaper. The mercenary throws something to the kid and then again turns into _smoke_ and blends with shadows.

He doesn’t drink again. Twice isn’t some wild hallucination. It’s a start of a pattern.

*                               

“Pardner, they not gonna pay the bounty, you realize?” McCree drawls, inhaling the smoke of his cigarette, not fazed by the barrel of a shotgun digging into back of his head.

“I’m not interested. I want information.” Gabriel nudges him and Jesse turns.

“My lucky day,” the kid spares him a glance. “Soldier Death himself. What can I do for you, pardner?”

“Blackwatch operations.”

“No wonder he’s itching to splatter you against a wall,” Jesse rolls his eyes. “Left before shit went down, can’t help you much.”

Gabriel growls and pulls back his hood, and then undoes the clasps of his mask. McCree’s eyes grow big.

“He’s gonna shit himself when he hears that… Commander Reyes.”

“We’re going to have a good long talk, McCree.”

*

They sit in one of Jack’s safehouses. It’s evidently lived in.

“I’m using them too,” Jesse offers unquestioned. “He just told me to go along and keep safe. And wait for orders.”

“Not doing so good on that,” the shotgun rests between them on the table. “Reaper.”

McCree visibly winces.

“He is… was Blackwatch. Loyal. On a team in Zurich. They used experimental tech trying to keep him alive, went very wrong.”

“Ziegler’s nanotech.” It all comes together. Twice is a pattern.

“Yeah. Apparently not so good on someone dead already. Try not to get in his way, he’s got memory issues since then, might not remember you’re on the same side. You know, Commander,” Jesse looks to the side, undecided, and then writes something out on a scrap of paper. “About Morrison. There’s a cache in Dorado. He wanted you to get it in case he… died. The Blackwatch stuff, you’re going to find it there. Full copy of everything, of stuff that never made it to the archives.”

Gabriel takes the coordinates.

“And Reyes… Jack. I think he was in love with you.” There’s a hint of reproach in McCree’s words.

“I know,” is all that Gabriel can answer.

*

He makes it to Dorado. At the end of the first day he’s shaken. There’s so much of it all, of all the things Jack kept from him, of all the things he never authorized that bear _his own_ signature.

There are surveillance photos of a man that bears striking similarities to Gerard Lacroix. Marked as Talon operative. There are even more pictures of him meeting the members of UN Overwatch Committee.

*

Gabriel’s bounty goes up with last hit on Talon operations, and he smirks. He might not be doing much, but he manages to hit them where it hurts. Where it counts.

The mercenary finds him next day and they reach a stalemate, each with gun trained on the other. Gabriel observes as the tension slowly leaves the man and his finger on the trigger eases off.

“Good job,” the voice is like a metallic rustle of filings. Reaper lowers his rifle and retreats without a shot fired.

Again he is left with more questions than answers.

*

He alternates now between his own and Jack’s safehouses. Three months later he finds one that is occupied. He enters with his shotguns drawn.

Familiar cloak and mask lie on the table. The man that sits in the chair with his back to the doors has white hair and pale skin. On his visible arm there are splotches of grey that look like they are changing shape and moving.

“If you invade someone’s home, have at least decency to knock, Gabe.” The voice is all too recognizable and Gabriel feels his hands waver.

“Jack…?”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Jack laughs, standing up and turning. Two deep gashes cut his face, the eyes are blue and glowing, without pupils, and there’s a _fucking stitched autopsy incision_ on his chest and stomach. “No shit, you look like your heart’s going to give up any second…”

Gabriel throws away his guns and closes the distance between them. He grabs Jack’s head between his hands and kisses him, and after a short moment it is reciprocated, and, _god, why had he never done that before?_

*

“So,” Jack chuckles in the morning, ”it only took me almost dying for you to…”

Gabriel stares at him. ‘ _He’s got memory issues since then_ ’ echoes in his head and Jack stares at his own arm, at the patch of grey moving towards his wrist with a strange focus.

“Shit, shit, shit… What’s the date?”

*

Jack wolfs down cold stew like he hadn’t eaten in days.

“What I’m saying is, at best, I’m like sci-fi zombie or vampire that reanimates all the time. At worst, I’m a sentient cluster of nanomachines carrying biomatter and I only think I’m myself,” he explains matter-of-factly. “And memory retention’s shit. Takes time to get a hold of it.”

‘ _It doesn’t matter_ ’ is what Gabriel wants to tell him. Instead he merely nods.

*

“Only had to get almost blown up, huh?” Jack asks next day.

“Had me scared there,” Gabriel humors him for a moment.

*

“It’s hard keeping it all there, it’s like they don’t want me to change a bit. It depends on things around me when I wake up, like they pull up associations rather. At least it keeps me consistent. Go down as Reaper, wake up as Reaper.”

*

Gabriel wakes up to a soft mantra of repeated words, Jack kneeling by him, clutching the mask to his chest, tears falling down from his chin.

“You’re alive,” he says it again, like a prayer, and Gabriel brings up his hand to Jack’s face.

“Focus, Morrison.”

*

“It’s turning real bothersome, isn’t it?” Statement, not question, as Jack looks at him over the table.

“I don’t mind.” He doesn’t. “We will work something out.”

“Don’t wanna to intrude on a moment,” McCree calls from the hall. “But remember that job you pulled in Gibraltar, boss?”

Jack stills for a second, eyes closed, concentration plain on his face.

“Data retrieval I half botched?”

“That one, boss. Winston’s doing a recall.” Jesse sits down in a free chair and eyes them both suspiciously, purses his lips noting their state of undress. Gabriel remembers he had an obvious crush on Jack. “Immediately after. Had a problem locating you.”

“I wasn’t keeping up with… stuff.”

“I noticed,” McCree, _the little shit_ , inclines his head to Gabriel. “What’s on your mind, boss?”

“Petras is still in effect, it’s going to be problematic. You want to sign up, Jesse?”

“Maybe. The bounty is becoming bothersome, boss.”

*

“You should join them too,” Jack quips week later, mask askew and lips grey, while they wait for their target.

“Morrison, you died for me. The least I can do is to stick by your side.” Gabriel shakes his head. “We both come back, or we don’t.”

Jack scoffs.

*

Every morning is like walking on broken glass. One can get used to it.

*

“They’re not happy.” Jesse is mumbling on the line. “Not about boss.”

“Then fucking tell them I’m coming and I’m bringing him with myself. Not Soldier, fucking Strike-Commander, and he comes with me. So they can stuff it.”

“You sure?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

*

They’re all tense. Gabriel stops and Jack has a claw hooked in leather of his jacket. He doesn’t need to look back to know there are dark tendrils trailing behind them both.

He slides his hood off and slowly takes off the mask with teeth painted on. There are gasps of disbelief.

“Told you all,” Jesse smirks, but Gabriel concentrates on Angela’s look of horrified realization.

“You, Ziegler, and I, we are going to have a good long heart to heart. You keep your mouth shut. You’re not going anywhere close to him before that, understood?” Jack shudders behind him. She just nods. “We’re taking commander’s quarters.”

*

“So you’re hiding me in Gibraltar?” Jack murmurs sleepily and Gabriel smiles, lacing their fingers together.

“Pretty much.”

“How long was I out?” Blue glowing eyes blink, unfocused.

“Too long, Jack,” Gabriel places a kiss on his forehead. “Focus on what you remember last.”

They have a routine worked out. Gabriel worries about times he might not be there when Jack wakes up.

*

Jack disappears after a raid on Talon’s weapon transport. He comes back several hours later, sneaks into their room, unconscious Widowmaker in his arms.

“Jack?”

“She could’ve shot me. She didn’t. That means it’s wearing off,” Jack looks to the side. “They’d notice it soon and recondition her again.”

“What am I…” Gabriel shakes his head.

“Call Ziegler.” There’s determined finality in Jack’s voice. “Have her come here with a gurney.”

Have her see how the room is arranged, have her see me, is what Jack means.

*

They are alone in the infirmary, if not for Widowmaker in her containment cell.

“Le traitre,” she welcomes Jack, hissing.

“You can stop pretending, Amelie,” Jack responds in his normal voice and she recoils, distrust written on her face, eyes scanning the room. “You’re not going back there.”

“Comment dois-je vous faire confiance?”

“You’re not going to be how you were before,” Jack removes his mask. “But you are going to get better.”

“Ah, commandant Morrison,” her gaze lands on Gabriel. “Commandant Reyes. Ces promesses.”

“And you can help us take Gerard down.”

Amelie smiles like a predator.

“J'écoute attentivement.”

*

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Jack,” Angela whispers as she cuts into his arm, but Jack refuses to look at her, his eyes steady on the wall – if there is any pain, he doesn’t acknowledge it – he doesn’t acknowledge her. “They said they’ve found the body, and I was desperate. I wasn’t losing both of you. I had no idea…”

Widowmaker chuckles from her cell.

“That’s enough,” Gabriel takes a hold of Jack’s arm and feels the flesh give under his touch, the electric buzz under his fingers. “You have your sample. Get to work, Ziegler.”

She nods, eyes closed, moisture at the edges, but Jack is shimmering between his arms, dark tendrils evaporating in the air, so Gabriel brushes his thumb over pale cheek before sliding the mask down.

“I’m here.”

“Chacun de nous a ses propres monstres, médecin,” Widowmaker laughs at Angela as they leave.

*

Gabriel wants to say something as Genji takes a seat at the same table but fingers digging into his thigh stop him – he only stares.

“I thought this was a persona non grata space,” Jesse mutters, squinting over his coffee.

“I’d say, but there’s only one person that would command such a loyalty from the mangy coyote,” the cyborg chirpily offers.

“Good to see you again, Genji,” Jack greets him with a voice like rustling shavings, his clawed hand outstretched over the table. Genji takes it and shakes.

“Good to see you more alive than dead, commander,” the cybrog smiles.

*

They take off for Egypt, alone.

“The word is not out, that I’m no longer taking jobs for them. I don’t think they know it yet,” Jack laughs lightly. “Probably think I’m just on hiatus and fucked off to do whatever it is that I do in my own time.”

Gabriel wonders how is it possible he’s not burning inside all of this leather and then catches himself before he asks. It brings a smile to his lips. He pulls Jack for a kiss.

*

“Everything’s very crude,” Jack mutters with distaste over the radio. “Miracle if anyone shows up. At worst we could check up how’s Helix doing on their containment, maybe take a look inside.”

“And the bounty?”

“Of course nobody’s going to pay it out. Unless you’re scary enough.”

“Let’s wrap it up for today,” Gabriel shakes his head. In the sweltering heat he feels like he’s swimming in his gear, and the telltale shimmer behind is cut short by the sound of single shot ringing out over the courtyard.

“…up there,” Jack’s voice is a metallic rustle with his throat blown off by the force of impact. “Catch her.”

*

They sit in a little room overlooking the city. Ana regards them both warily.

“You want me to come back,” Jack hesitantly moves his mask back and smiles, corners of his mouth quivering anxiously. “Should have figured it was one of you. You both always had a flair for dramatics.” She chuckles and Jack’s smile gains conviction. “Got you both dying to finally get together.”

“I died. He just pretended.”

*

“Vous ne me blâmez pas pour cela, vieille fille.” Widowmaker observes, her golden eyes not leaving Ana for a second.

“No, Amelie.”

“Bien.” Both women relax. They shake hands tentatively.

*

“No, Ziegler, you’re not getting another sample,” Gabriel looks up at her. “You got one, you still have it.”

“I need a bigger one. I think I have…”

“You think. I told you once already,” he growls and seeing her shrink from him brings him minute satisfaction, “you’re not coming anywhere close to him unless you have a definite way to fix it or know how to kill him.”

“But the data…”

“No means no, Ziegler.” She slinks away. Jack’s shape solidifies by him.

“Kill him, huh? Not a bad idea,” he murmurs, head on Gabriel’s shoulder.

*

Widowmaker sits down with them, back rigid, head held high – McCree coughs choking on his toast.

“Beurre?” Genji offers her some.

“You, like, okay with that?” Jesse asks incredulously.

“As long as she doesn’t flirt with me.”

“Je n'ai pas de lecteur de sexe,” Amelie responds bluntly and Jack laughs. Gabriel smiles behind his cup at the sound.

“She said something about sex, what did she say?”

“Rien d'intéressant, imbecile.”

*

“Cibler dans le viseur,” Amelie’s steady voice rings out and everything turns sour few seconds later. There is only an aftershock – an echo of a thunder. “Sniper dans l'est. Bâtiment rouge. Toit.”

But all Gabriel can hear is a rising _roar_ , and Jack is on the assailants, close and visceral, his silhouette disappearing and reforming from a black cloud of nanites, claws ripping flesh and something else from them, and, _god, Gabriel will never grow accustomed to that thing Jack does_ that leaves bodies grey and frail, but in turn gives his skin a memory of color.

Another shot chips at the brick wall.

“Sniper est neutralisée. Amateur.” There’s a tinge of satisfaction in Amelie’s words, but all Gabriel can feel are Jack’s hands on him, shredding his jacket and armor, and the pressure from _inside_ in his wound. All he can see is the face above him illuminated by a glow of the emitter. Somehow, he finds strength to bring his hand up and pull Jack closer for a kiss.

“Keep tight, luvs, Mercy’s on the way,” Lena hops by and Gabriel sighs at the contact lost when Jack startles away, looking at her. “Commander Morrison…?”

“Lâcher le morceau,” Amelie sounds more amused than she should be able to.

*

“You can do it. We can do it,” Gabriel rests fingers on Jack’s shoulder and his form stops wavering.

“If you say so, Commander,” Jack looks away as he takes a step into the corridor without his mask on.

*

Angela doesn’t show her face for a whole week.

*

It takes several months. Jack still manages to pull up inside information on Talon, even if he’s burned with them after that incident.

“I have my operatives, Commander. Remember the divide,” he chides when Gabriel asks.

They have the place. They have the date.

It’s Zurich.

*

“Bonne nuit, ma chérie,” Amelie whispers while pulling the trigger. Seconds pass and then Gerard’s head explodes in a shower of gore. Moment later another bullet, shot by Ana, collides with his chest. “Je suis libre.”

And then the charges detonate, bringing down the whole floor down.

There will be enough evidence left to shake the foundations of the UN. Enough for public to ask questions that will need answers.

There won’t be any evidence who carried out the strike.

*

“I remember you,” Jack smiles, awake, when Gabriel comes to. The words are plain, but mean much more.

Gabriel relaxes. They’re never going to be okay, but they will manage.

*

They are kept on payroll as ‘consultants’. Amelie spends her days reading and tending to the garden. Sombra sometimes brings her adopted daughters along. Jesse and Genji come to drink with Jack and swap stories. Lena comes for advice, age showing in the corners of her eyes.

And Gabriel, Gabriel remembers in the mornings that he said

_yes_

to a question asked by Jack.

**Author's Note:**

> If you can point to a definite place where the drabble decided to run away from me, I'll be thankful.  
> TRANSLATIONS for Amelie being the little shit:  
> Le traitre. - traitor (duh)  
> Comment dois-je vous faire confiance? - How (am I supposed to)/(do I) trust you?  
> Ces promesses. - Such promises.  
> J'écoute attentivement. - I'm listening with attention.  
> Chacun de nous a ses propres monstres, médecin. - Each of us has their/his own monsters, doctor.  
> Vous ne me blâmez pas pour cela, vieille fille. - You (can't)/(don't) blame for that, 'little old lady'.  
> Bien. - Good / well / as it should be.  
> Beurre? – Butter?  
> Je n'ai pas de lecteur de sexe. - I have no sexual drive.  
> Rien d'intéressant, imbecile. - Nothing interesting, you idiot.  
> Cibler dans le viseur. - target is in the viewfinder / crosshairs.  
> Sniper dans l'est. Bâtiment rouge. Toit. - Sniper on the east (side). Red building. Roof.  
> Sniper est neutralisée. Amateur. - Sniper is neutralized. Amateur (duh).  
> Lâcher le morceau. – the cat's out of the bag / somebody spilled the beans.  
> Bonne nuit, ma chérie. - Good night, beloved.  
> Je suis libre - I am free.


End file.
